




E 286 
.R665 
1839 
Copy 1 



f 



EH..TA.-On the fourth page, 9th line, for "Mess than half a miUion." read less than m 
million dollars. 



AN 



ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFOK.E THE 



DEMOCRATIC CITIZENS 



PLYMOUTH COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS, 



EAST ABINGTON 



JULY 4, 1839, 



BY SETH J. THOMAS. 



BOSTON: 

PRINTED BY BEALS AND GREENE, 
1839. 



n 






PUBLISHED BY REQUEST 



ADDRESS 



We are assembled, fellow citizens and brethren, 
to celebrate the anniversary of that epoch in the his- 
tory of the world, when it was first published as the 
sentiment of a whole community, that all men are 
created equal, and that governments derive their just 
powers from the consent of the governed. The m- 
cident is worthy to be celebrated,— not only in our 
own country, but wherever the heart beats to liberty, 
and man feels that he is man. Almost all political 
events, however illustrious, have soon lost their po\v- 
er to interest, and men have ceased to celebrate then- 
return. But not so with the event we are here cel- 
ebrating ; for on this day the people of our country 
asserted a principle— a living, immortal truth — a 
truth which is constantly becoming more manifest 
and more generally appreciated. Each succeeding 
year adds, and must continue to add, to the value of 
the blessings which the declaration of our national 
independence conferred upon the wojld, and it will 
be celebrated with new delight when the whole fam- 
ily of nations shall be emancipated, and despotisms 
and monarchies exist only in the memory of man. 

It is now but a little more than sixty years since 
the declaration was made ; and what immense con- 
sequences have flowed from it ! What mighty chang- 
es, what improvements have already taken place m 
the physical condition of the country, and in the po- 
litical and social condition of the people ! We were 



% 



thou only a few feeble states ; we are now a power- 
lul nation ! We were then only about three niillionb 
of peoi)le ; the three millions have now become sev- 
enteen millions ! In the course of the last half cen- 
tury, our territory has been extended ; the number of 
our states doubled ; the products of our soil and our 
manufactures have increased to a wonderi\il extent. 
Durin;^ the first two years of General Washington's 
administration, the whole value of our exports was 
less than half a million of dollars ; our exports, dur- 
ing the last two years, amounted to about two hun- 
dred and twenty-six millions of dollars ! The most 
rapid improvements in the arts and in literature have 
been constantly going on ; the mighty hills and plains 
of our country, then unexplored, are now clothed 
with flocks and herds, or waving with the promise of 
a glorious harvest for the husbandman ; an im- 
mense wilderness has been redeemed from barba- 
rism, and become the abode of industry, civilization 
and religion ; and cities, with their intelligent and ac- 
tive thousands of people, have sprung up, where, at 
that time, the foot of the white man had not trod : — 
education is diffused generally among the people ; 
the number of newspapers, periodicals and books, — 
and readers, — as compared with the whole poj)ula- 
tion, is great, beyond all former example ; — the 
standard of morality has been raised ; the vice of 
int('mi)erance, at least, it is believed, has diminished 
among us ; many aristocratic features in our system 
of government, which our ancestors copied from the 
old world, have been extirpated, and the general 
tendency ol' legislation has been toward equality of 
conditions and the greatest happiness of the people. 

Such are some of the consetpiences which have 
flowed from the declaration ot our national inde- 
pendence. Manifest, also, are its influences u|)on 
foreign nations, — in liieir institutions, their systems 
of education and tlieir laws; but a further — a com- 
plete triumph, awaits the j)rinciples it embraces. 

It soon awoke France from her slumbers, and 



stimulated the people of that country to emulate our 
example. The spirit of liberty spread until it pervad- 
ed nearly the whole European continent ; but the 
great mass of the people wanted knowledge and vir- 
tue to carry out the idea they had but imperfectly 
formed, and their endeavors were only partially suc- 
cessful. Other efforts, under better circumstances, 
vv'ill lead to better results ; and the news that has 
recently come to us from that side of the sea, leaves 
no room to doubt that it will not be loiig before those 
efforts will be made. 

The people of Europe are now repeating the truths 
expressed in the declaration, with an earnestness and 
a boldness which give assurance that they under- 
stand and feel their true weight and force. At a 
dinner recently given to Joseph Hume, at Bristol, 
in England, which was numerously attended, one 
of the regular toasts, prepared by the committee of 
arrangements, was, " The people — the true source of 
all legitimate power.'' And in offering this toast to 
the company. Sir Edward Codrington, who presided, 
said, he conceived that every man, tolerably well ac- 
quainted with politics, would at once admit, that 
all power was derived from the people, and that, 
if the people of England said they would have no 
sovereign, but a republic, they had a right to make 
the change. 

In England, moreover, a numerous and power- 
ful party has recently been organized under the 
popular name of Chartist, — its members having 
signed and pledged themselves to a charter, or dec- 
laration of rights, in some respects similar to our 
declaration of independence. 

The great problem, which the men of this age, 
everywhere, are engaged in solving, is politics ; 
and wonderfully will the light of education, now 
dawning upon mankind, aid in the solution. That 
light is like the sun in his rising — it will soon shine 
on all ; and who does not know, that the irresisti- 
ble tendency of general education is to democracy. 



Everyuliero menthirst for knowleilgo, aiu] llietliirst 
must be satisfied ; to restrain it would he far more 
difficult than the enforcement of all the license laws 
ever enacted. It is impossible. The sj)irit, the feel- 
ing has been awakened, the Hame lighted, and its 
spread cannot be prevented ; it will become univer- 
sal. There will soon be no bounds beyond which 
education will not pass. The {)ress wilTlind its way 
to the dwelling of the most obscure laborer ; and as 
it comes to him periodically, he will seize it with 
alacrity and delight, though iit the cost of immediate 
personal comforts. It is a fact, related by Mr. 
Bowring, that the oj)eraiives in many of the facto- 
ries in England, will relinquish one meal a day for the 
sake of saving money enough to purchase a radical 
newspaper. And that knowledge of metaphysics, 
even, which half a century ago was possessed only 
by the " philosophic few," is now largely partaken of 
by the " improving many." The facilities of commu- 
nication, which are yearly increased between foreign 
countries, as well as between the people of the same 
country, will do much for the diffusion of knowledge. 
The people of other countries, who have been accus- 
tomed to look with dread upon a republican system, 
as tending to anarchy, will visit us, acquaint them- 
selves with our system of government, our institu- 
tions, and the social and political condition of the 
people, and see things as they exist among us. We 
shall connnune witli them ; the governments of the 
one, the few, and the many, will be brought into 
open contrast ; and who among us has not forecast 
enough to see the issue 7 

" He who does not see," says an eminent Anuii- 
can writer, "that knowledjie, huvinji once ijoih' 
down among the people — which it never did before — 
will never turn back ; and he who does not see, at 
th(? same time, that tiic sprejid ol' intelligence inusf 
sooner or later i)reak down the entire system of un- 
just favoritism, whether in churcli or state, knows 
nothin!^ of human nritur(\ *■*«<* 'The mighty 



power that is rising in the world is intellectual 
power ; and the one engine that is to take prece- 
dence of guns, and battlements, and armies, is the 
PRESS. The great age of educated human nature — 
not of educated upper classes alone, but of educated 
human nature — is commencing. But instead of 
giving this mighty element the chief place in the 
problem of the future, men are speculating about 
visible forces and agencies ; about the power of ar- 
mies, the strength of dynasties, and the barriers of 
caste. It is all in vain. It must be in vain, unless 
human nature shall be radically changed. * * * 
It is as if a man should dispute — against the sun. 
Doubtless there will be disputings .and railings. 
There will be checks and disturbances, attending 
this great progress of things, like the chills and 
storms that wait upon the advancing steps of spring. 
Many a blast from the winter of ages gone by, will 
sweep rudely over the blossoming hopes of the world, 
and threaten their destruction. The course of things 
will not be peaceful. The elements of the world 
will be in conflict. There will be overshadowing 
clouds; there will be many ' a raw and gusty day ;' 
the long imprisoned waters will sometimes burst 
forth in desolating floods. There will be oppositions 
and struggles in society ; the rage of kings, and tu- 
mults of the people ; but through all these the great 
year of the world will advance ! And no man can 
doubt — all agitations, and excitements, and trial 
notwithstanding — that a progress of things so inevi- 
table, based as it is upon the very principles of hu- 
man nature ; springing as it does from such certain 
theoretical truths ; involving such unquestionable 
rights — a progress whose origin is education, whose 
element is freedom, and whose cause is humanity — 
must, with all its difficulties and dangers, be a pro- 
gress to good. To doubt it, would be to doubt the 
providence of the Ruler of the world." 

If, fellow citizens, such be the inevitable tenden- 
cy of the age ; if democracy is to become universal ; 



8 

if the tree which was first planted here, in the soil 
of the Pilgrims, and whose first bud of promise 
opened to the world sixty-three years ago to-day, 
is to spread out its branches until it overshadows all 
civilized communities ; the speaker of to-day knows 
of no way in which he can more properly or more 
profitably engage your attention for an hour, than 
by attempting to show what is democracy itself — 
this tree, which is to attain unto such wonderful 
excellence — and which of the two great parties into 
which the community is divided, it is, that has 
watered and cherished it, from the first, and now 
assembles under its shadow to pay its offering to 
God and Liberty. Indeed, the speaker has no choice 
left him ; no other course or subject would be con- 
sistent with his duty or with the occasion. He 
would be unjust, also, to his own feelings, did he not 
now acknowledge the high gratification which it af- 
fords him to join with his early friends — many whom 
he sees before him his school companions — now for 
the first time in the course of a residence of seven- 
teen years in a neighboring county, in celebrating 
this day of promise. Together, then. 

Let us beat this ample field, 



Try what the open, what the covert j-ield ; 
The latent tracts, ihe giddy heights explore 
Of all who blindly creep, or sightless soar; 
Eye nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies, 
And catch the manners living as they rise ; 
Lan^h where we must, be candid where we can, 
But vindicate the ways of God to Man." 

The term democracy is generally used as sig- 
nifying that particular form of government in which 
the people, or a majority of the people, possess the 
supreme power — that is, are sovereign. The true 
idea of democracy, however, comprehends something 
further than this ; it embraces a principle whicli lies 
deeper than the mere forms of government — a prin- 
ciple which is the end of government ; — the princi- 
ple is, the general good, or the greatest happiness ; 
and this involves the principle of justice. Gov- 
ernment is but an instrument to secure to the peo- 





pic the enjoyment of ihiri end ; arra tlie very reason 
why the republican form of government is preferable 
to all others is, that, in its practical operation, it is 
most conducive to the ha])piness of the greatest num- 
ber of Aidividaals ; lor, 

" Ifisiiiicance is bli^s. 
''Pweie I'l'lly lo be wise." 

If people are as absolutely happy as is compati- 
ble with humanity, as slaves, we may spare ourselves 
all further trouble about emancipation. But no 
argument is necessary to convince the people of our 
country that it is not so. Our own republican gov- 
ernment can never be entitled to the appellation of 
a perfect democracy, until the right of suffrage be- 
comes universal — for the people can in no way exer- 
cise sovereignty but by their suffi'ages, which are 
"their own will" — and not, then, can it truly be said 
to be a perfect democracy, except in proportion as it 
is administered with a view to the end for which it 
was instituted. 

Property (jualifications in a state, are inconsistent 
with the idea of democracy ; — equality of rights, 
universal suffrage, being one of its fundamental prin- 
ciples. A state in which the right of suffrage is not 
free, is an aristocracy — the supreme power being 
lodged in the hands of a part of the people; or rath- 
er, a part of the people being precluded from the ex- 
ercise of sovereignty. Such is the fact with some of 
the states of our union. Massachusetts, by the 
progress of free principles, has obliterated from her 
statute-book, this reproach upon the intelligence of 
her citizens ; and, whatever may be said of the bad- 
ness of her policy in other respects, in this, at least, 
she is democratic. 

While, therefore, the essence of democracy does 
not consist in a republican form of government, that 
form is essential to the realization of the great end 
to which I have referred, viz : the sovereignty of jus- 
tice among the people ; — and it is the general knowl- 
edge of tills fact, as I have already intimated, that 



10 

is at tlie bottom of the revolution wliicii is now ijoinir 
on in tlie worhl. The rule of conduct, set up among 
tile people in a republic, is necessarily of a better 
sort than that found in any other form of <j^overnment; 
th(;y adopt better niaxinis. Under a despotic gov- 
ernment it is only necessary that the jx'ople fear the 
sovereign ; fear, then, is the standard of duty in ed- 
ucation nnder a despotism. It is not the virtue and 
intelligence of the people that sustains the govern- 
ment, but the physical force Avhich the prince can 
command ; hence, virtue will not be set up as the 
rule of conduct in a despotic government. There, 
education is, in some measure, worse than needless ; 
to impart knowledge, as we have seen, wouid be to 
take away fear, and the government would thus begin 
"with making a bad subject, with a view to make a 
good slave. 

Neither is any great share of virtue necessary un- 
der a monarchy. There, the duty of the subject is 
honor ; it is, then, reverence for institutions and the 
established order of things, which is the rule of ed- 
ucation in a monarchy ; and this reverence is, of 
course, perfectly compatible with a lack of virtue. 
As education in a despotic government tends only 
to debase the mind, so, in a monarchy, the education 
im[)arted tends oidy to raise and ennoble, without 
actually informing or strengthening it. " In a mon- 
archy," says Montesquieu, (who wrote under a 
monarchy,) "the virtues men are taught arc less 
what they owe to others, than to themselves ; they 
are not so much what assimilates us to, as what 
distinguishes us from, our fellow citizens." 

In a republic, virtue among the people is absolutely 
indisj)ensable. Here every man feels that he has a 
shar<' in the state ; he feels iiimsclf part of the govern- 
ment ; and since all know and feel that government 
rests upon the constant of all, and must be adminis- 
tered with a view to the welfare of all, there will 
necessarily, be prudence and elfective benevolence 
in its administration ; moralitv will be the standard 



11 

of education. And morality, said Jeremy Bentham 
— and he uttered an eternal truth — is the rule of 
conduct, which, if generally pursued, would pro- 
duce the greatest amount of happiness. 

Other standards of education and duty than these 
may be set up under these several forms of govern- 
ment ; under the two former, as we know, the peo- 
ple are now setting up other standards ; but, I re- 
peat, the inevitable tendency will be to annihilate 
the forms and change the character of the govern- 
ment. Educate all men thoroughly, and where, 
think you, would be slavery ? Diffuse knowledge 
generally among the people, and there would be no 
government but that of the people themselves. 

If this view be correct, no democrat can declare 
that, " we live under the worst government upon 
the face of God's earth." All must acknowledge that 
we have an excellent form of government — beautiful, 
written constitutions, state and federal — capable, in- 
deed, of improvement, as circumstances change and 
the people increase in knowledge, but well designed 
and framed to promote the general welfare, and to 
secure the blessings of liberty to the whole people. 

Both these constitutions guaranty to the people 
the right of trial by jury, the liberty of the press 
and the freedom of religion. The different branches 
of the government under each, " have their respec- 
tive orbits prescribed to them and are forbidden to 
overstep them." The masses are protected from 
the ambition of the wealthy and powerful, and each 
individual citizen from the intolerance, oppression 
and injustice of the majority. The rights of proper- 
ty are respected and guarded ; equal rights are guar- 
antied to all, and exclusive privileges are confined 
entirely to those who may have rendered peculiar 
and essential services to the public. Does an aris- 
tocracy seek to deprive the people of their just rights? 
the people have a remedy under our constitutions. 
Do the many invade the rights of property and 
seek unjustly to deprive the few of their wealth ? — 



12 

a thiiiii never khouii .'uiioDfi- us — {\\c ronsiitutlon 
is a sliield and j)rot('Clioii aj^aiiist siicli :in invasion. 
When raiiliiully admitiistercd, cacli ciiizen is secure 
ill the enjovnicnt of liis natural ri^xlits, and the rich 
and the \)oov ahke lind j)rotccti<)n hcneatli its ample 
folds. 

it was a jiovernment havinji; in view these heneli- 
cent and wise purposes, that jMr. Jeirerson, at the 
head of the movement party of his time, earnestly 
endeavored to estahlisli v. hen we had tlu'own off al- 
legiance to Great I5rilain. lie was tie very lirst 
writer in the count ly to giv(> an ini|;etus, liy the 
tVaminj^ of d(MHoc;ratic constitutions, to that power- 
ful movenieut of the masses toward a better social 
condition than had before existed. 

It is alleged, in an address delivered before the 
Historical Society in the city of New York, by 
the representative in Congress from this district — 
which address has just been published — that the 
state rights republican party were ojjposed to tlic 
adoption of our federal Constitution. But this state- 
ment does not truly piesent the case. The people 
of our country had just then come out of the war of 
the revolution. They had come out of it with im- 
perishable honor ; but oppressed with the debts of 
the union, with the debts of the individual states, 
of the towns, and with their own private debts ; nnd 
they were utterly una])le to discharge any of these, 
from the best of all causes, the want of pecuniary 
means. The burdens bore with peculiar severity 
upon the poorer classes of the people: b(>cause, from 
the customary system of taxation at that period, one 
third part of the whole was assessed upon the rata- 
ble polls alone. The nj)pli('ation of judgment aiul 
execution, in the case of j)rivate debts, served to in- 
crease the general distress ; nnd the neglect of a 
suitable relaxation of the judiciary power, particu- 
larly in th(^ eastern states, led to the most serious 
eonsequences. Tumultuous meetings were held in 
New JIamj>shire, Conn(>cti(ut, ai^.d in other places ; 



13 

and 111 Massachusetts, an insurrection arose which, 
ahhough it might now, perhaps, be called by the 
whig papers only a ^'■gentlemanly mob," was then 
considered so serious a matter as to menace the very 
foundations of government. The public credit was 
destroyed ; commerce had been interrupted, and had 
not then sought out new channels ; Congress had 
no power to restore the one, or regulate the other ; 
and the insufficiency of the confederation was appar- 
ent to every body. 

It was under these circumstances, that the con- 
vention was held to consider and determine upon the 
federal Constitution. The disturbances which had 
grown out of this peculiar state of our affairs, natu- 
rally excited a distrust of the principles of a repub- 
lican government, even among some of its most san- 
guine friends ; while with its enemies, — and there 
Were many among us,- — the intelligence of these 
events was hailed as a happy omen of the downfall of 
the republic ; and no occasion was neglected to urge 
these scenes as an argument against the capacity of 
the people for self-government. At this period, Mr. 
Jefferson, — the acknowledged head of the republi- 
can party, — was in Europe, negotiating treaties with 
foreign nations ; but his correspondence, which has 
been handed down to us, proves, that he was then 
the ardent friend and advocate of precisely such a 
federal Constitution as we now have, — with the bare 
exceptions that he wanted inserted an express prohi- 
bition of monopolies, and a declaration against the 
perpetual re-eligibility of the president ; and as to 
these, it would have been found as difficult to define 
monopolies as it has been to prevent them ; and the 
latter suggestion of Mr. Jefferson has now in fact 
the force of law, through the example of Washing- 
ton and himself. 

The republican party in the convention gener- 
ally opposed the Constitution, not because they 
were opposed to such a federal Constitution as we 
now have, but because it did not then contain those 



14 

democratic provisions which were .afterwards adopt- 
ed as amendments, and which time and experience 
have shown wore essential to secure the people in 
the enjoyment of their just rigiits. The original 
Constitution contained no express provision, guaran- 
tying the freedom of the press — the right of the peo- 
ple peaccahly to assemhle for a redress of grievances, 
or declaring against any law for an estahlishment of 
religion. The right of the people to he secure in 
their persons, houses and papers ; against unreason- 
able searches and seizures, was not expressed, the 
full benefit of trial by jury was not enjoined ; and it 
was not said, that " the powers not delegated to the 
United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by 
it to the states, are reserved respectively to the 
states, or to the people." These were the salu- 
tary provisions for which the democratic party in 
the convention contended, and which 3Ir. Jeffer- 
son had suggested, and they were all adopted at the 
instance of Mr. 3Iadison, by the first Congress which 
assembled under the Constitution, in 1789. The 
adoption of these amendments was a complete tri- 
umph of the democratic party ; and the Constitution 
as it now stands, is the Constitution for which, from 
the first, the republicans contended. On this point 
we have positive and direct testimony. In a letter 
to ]Mr. INIadison, and in another to Col. Humphreys, 
while the Constitution was under consideration in 
the convention, Mr. Jefferson mentions these very 
provisions as highly essential ; and in a letter to Gen. 
Washington, written afterward, he expresses his 
regret that they had not been incorporated with the 
orii^inal ; but advises tlic adoption of the Constitu- 
tion, by the states, without them, as " an excellent 
canvass, which wanted only a few more touches by 
the painter." ITis wish was that the peoj)Ie might 
be left free indeed, and in full jjossession of the val- 
uable rights which they had fought to obtain. " My 
own general idea," he said to "Washington, '* is, that 
the states should preserve their sovereignty in what- 



15 

ever concerns themselves alone ; and that whatever 
may concern another state, or any foreign nation, 
should be made a part of the federal sovereignty." 
And the debates in the convention which adopted 
the Constitution, fully establish the fact that such 
were the opinions of the republican members. Such, 
too, we know, are principles of the existing Consti- 
tution. When, therefore, the author of the address 
which I have mentioned, would have people infer 
that the republican party were opposed to the Con- 
stitution as it now is, he would have them infer that 
which is not true. 

Your representative in Congress has also a most 
singular method of proving his consolidation doc- 
trines. He says, the principles of the Constitu- 
tion were first incorporated in the declaration of 
independence ; that they were departed from in the 
confederacy, and were re-incorporated in the Con- 
stitution ; that the declaration does not recognize 
state rights, but one people, and that since the 
states did not obtain their sovereignty by the 
declaration, they possess no sovereignty under the 
Constitution. 

Now, admitting that the principles of the Con- 
stitution are essentially those of the declaration, 
Mr Adams may be well answered, I conceive, by 
saying, that Mr. Jefferson, being the acknowledged 
author of the declaration, ought to have known its 
import, and his opinion of the Constitution, given 
at a late period of life, when he could possibly have 
had no purpose to serve but the g-ood of his country, 
was, that the states are not subordinate to the 
federal government ; " Foreigners," said he, " err 
in supposing such the case." " To the state 
governments are reserved all legislation and ad- 
ministration in affairs which concern their own 
citizens only, and to the federal government is giv- 
en whatever concerns foreigners or the citizens of 
other states ; these alone being made federal. 
The one is the domestic, the other the foreign 



16 

branch of the government ; neitlier having control 
over the other, but within its own department." 

But I may i^o i'nrthcr, in rej)ly to your represen- 
tative. Tlie (k'chuation, as you undoubtedly ob- 
served to-day, spoke in the name of the ukpuesen- 

TATIVES OF THE UnITED StATES OF A.MERICA 

in Congress assembled ; and it related to the inter- 
course of the states with the government of Great 
Britian. It came strictly within the remark made 
by 3Ir. JeflTerson, afterward, that to the United 
States it belonged to do whatever was needliil to 
be done relating to foreign governments. It had 
no relation whatever to internal concerns ; and to 
have spoken of state sovereignty, would have been 
entirely out of place ; — and no man knows this 
better than 3Ir. Adams. Having laid down the 

foundation for all "ood ffovernments, and set forth 

• • • 

the usurpation and injustice of Great Britain, the 

declaration concludes — " We, therefore, the rep- 
resentatives OF the Umted States of Amer- 
ica," &.C. &-C. The declaration could have had no 
more reference to state sovereignty than this, wiili- 
out a departure li'oin the purpose of its signers. 

Mr. Adams asks — with an air of triumph which 
seems to imply that the inquiry is to silence forever, 
the advocates of state rights — where did each 
state get its sovereignty ? If not in the declara- 
tion, where did they get it 7 ]]ut no one, possessing 
a tolerable familiarity with the early liistory of our 
government, need be at a loss to answer the in- 
quiry, livery body knows that the people of our 
country enlianchised tliemselves ; they usurped 
sovereignty from the mother government. Before 
that, she was the sovereign ; and when she had been 
conqx'lled to acknowledge the slates free and inth'- 
pendent, tlic (jucstion arose with the people as to 
what sort of a government sliould be instituted. 
And instead of one coMsoUihitcd govermnrnt, it was 
decided, and most wisely decid(ul, l)y them, to make 
the federal govermnent one of limited powers, and 
to have tlui exercise of soverei'intv with tlu' states. 



17 

"Ilia large republic," says the Spirit of Laws, 
'" the public jj:ood is sacrificed to a thousand views ; 
it is subjected io accidents. In a small one, the 
interest of the public is easier perceived, better un- 
derstood, and more witliiii the reach of every citi- 
zen ; abuses have less extent, and of course are less 
protected." Such was also the opinion of those who 
instituted our govern^ncnt. They not only feared 
the despotism of the few, but the despotism of the 
many ; and believing that, in a small republic, the 
rights of the weaker portion of the people would be 
less disregarded, because here they can make them- 
selves heard, and their wrongs will be manifest, they 
formed a union of separate and independent states. 
The generation of which I am speaking apprehend- 
ed, and wisely guarded against, the tendency to the 
very doctrines which lUr. Adams would have us be- 
lieve they left us as an inheritance. 

The purpose of the declauation was to absolve 
the people of the states, then and thereafter, from 
all allegiance io the British crown ; that of the 
CoNSTiTUTiox, to establish a government of the 
people, when their independence had been acknowl- 
edged. As to the states usurping the sovereignty 
of the people, of which Mr. Adams speaks, that is 
all nonsense and moonshine, — and tliere is hardly 
moonshine enough to light the ex-president through 
his labyrinth of sophistry. Nothing is usurped from 
the people. They are still, thank God, the source 
of all political power here ; they may alter their 
state constitutions as they please, — on-ly preserving 
a republican form of government. The legislature 
can pass no law that may not be repcaletl by a suc- 
ceeding one ; and the executive, after a year's ser- 
vice, may be sent back a private citizen, as power- 
less as before he assumed office. The judiciary is 
the only branch of our state government possessing 
any sovereignty, and that would possess none, were 
the proposed measures of the democratic party adopt- 
ed. The ueople have merely chosen to exercise their 
3 



18 

sovereignty through tlie state governments, ratlier 
than by one general government. Is the exercise 
of sovereignty by the one any more inconsistent 
witli the sovereignty of the people, than its exercise 
by the other ? Or, if this exercise has not been 
given to the states, whore and when and how was 
it given to the federal government ? 

Again : 31 r. Adams says the people were not con- 
sulted about this state sovereignty. This also is an 
error. That the people were not satisfied with the 
original Constitution, Mr. Adams is compelled to 
admit. It was barely adoj)t("d by the states ; and 
what did the people immediately do ? Elected mem- 
bers to Congress under the Constitution — and those 
members, fresh from their constituency, expressing 
the will of the peoj)le, amended the Constitution by 
incorporating the article, which says, "the powers 
not delegated to the United States by the Constitu- 
tion, nor proiiibited by it to the states, are reserved 
to the states respectively, or to the people !" And 
if there had been any doubt before as to which gov- 
ernment sovereignty belonged to, and which was a 
government of merely limited powers, all men of 
common sense must see, and men of common hon- 
esty admit, that there has been none since. It 
would be folly to follow the ex-president further ; 
for it is evident that sovereignty rests with the peo- 
ple ; and that its exercise, being expressly prohibited 
to the federal government — except in a few cases — 
necessarily belongs to the states. 

Having wand<'red from the purpose of my dis- 
course, in the pursuit of Mr. Adams, f must return 
to the convention, and recur for a moment to the 
principles of the f('d(M-al party, whose leader mid 
iiead was Alexander Hamilton. This party conten- 
ded that a democracy was impracticable — that a 
government of the people was chimerical ; and to 
sustain this their j)ositi()ii, cited the insubordinations 
to which I have referred. They were for approxi- 
mating, as near as possible, to the theory of the Brit- 



N 19 

ish Constitution. Hamilton probably carried his 
views of monarchy somewhat further than his fol- 
lowers ; he advocated a president and senate during 
good behavior, — that is, in effect, for life, — and the 
appointment by the federal government, of the gov- 
ernors of the states, with a veto on state laws. 
They had, or affected to have, no confidence in the 
people ; and they wanted a strong consolidated 
government, which would coerce the people into 
submission to the authority of their rulers, whether 
right or wrong. A striking illustration of this co- 
ercion is to be found in the history of the rebellions, 
which occurred in many of the states, and especially 
in Massachusetts, near the period of the adoption of 
the Constitution. Instead of removing the causes 
which induced the rebellions, the whole attention 
and strength of the government was employed in a 
rigorous execution of the laws ; and the government 
finally succeeded ; but it succeeded only at great 
and unnecessary cost, and its triumph was not that 
of justice. Indeed, it did not aim to dispense jus- 
tice, until the weaker portion of the people were 
compelled to submission — that very portion for 
whose protection government is instituted. The 
people demanded justice, and no more than justice. 
They asked for the abolition of useless offices, for 
retrenchment in the expenses of the government, and 
an amelioration of a system of taxation, with the 
requirements of which they were utterly unable to 
comply, and they were answered by a suspension of 
the habeas corpus. 

At first, Hamilton and his party in the convention 
were opposed to the adoption of the Constitution. 
But he afterwards saw a way open under it, to ac- 
complish his cherished purposes, and himself and 
Mr. Jay became the strongest advocates for its 
adoption. What that way was, we may learn from 
his policy as the first secretary of the treasury, as 
well as from his own statements ; indeed, it has 
been manifest in most of the acts of the federal party 



20 

from that day to (his. IJe Ijchcki witli the Icderai 
governmont an unlimited power of taxation ; and his 
idea was to pursue a hue of policy in tlje administra- 
tion of tlie irovermnent, which would bind the 
Avcalthy and pov.erful class of society, through their 
interest, to the supjiort of th.e ^'overnnicnt ; Jind hy 
this means, and the aid of the judiciary, which, wlien 
fairly installed in office, he foresav/ would, in fact, be 
resj)onsible to no authority, he expected to annihilate 
state rights, and to establish, in etlect, one single 
strong consolidated government. In a word, his 
method to accomplish his great purpose was, to cor- 
rupt a share of the people by government patronnge, 
to government views ; and to control tlie rest, 
through the aid of the judiciary. Such were the 
views and hopes of the federal party in the outset of 
the government. 

In a conversiition with John Adams, in refer- 
ence to his beau ideal of Government, the British 
Constitution, Mr. Hamilton said, take away its cor- 
ruption and give to it an eqmdity of representation, 
and it will become an impracticable government ; 
as it stands at present, with all its supposed defects, 
it is the most perfect government which ever existed. 
And long after the adoption of the Constitution, Mr. 
Jefi'erson remarked of Hnmilton, that he was for an 
hereditary king, with a house of lords and commons, 
corrupted, by executive i)atronnge, to his will. And 
this might have been attained, in eflbct, under our 
Constitution, as when first adopted, and before the 
salutary practice of the president to retire after eight 
years service had been entered upon. 

The first great measure of Hamilton, in the line 
of his policy, after the adoption of the Constitution^ 
was, the institution of the funding system ; by which 
the federal government assumed an enormous debt ; 
the ellect of which was, in part, to draw off the atten- 
tion of thepe(»j)Ie from th.e states, and to fix attention 
uj)on the fc^leral government. The next njeasure 
w;;s the issuing a treasury order, directing the re- 



21 

cbipt of bank notes into tiie treasury, in payiuenl of 
government does. The next was the institution of 
a national bank, by which the wealthy class obtained 
the control of the monied operations of the country^ 
and by its agency and other measures of the federal 
schooln at last well nigh obtained the control of the 
government itself The next measure was internal 
improvements, by which the government patronage 
was to have been augmented to an indefinite ex- 
tent ; and after that measure came the protecting 
policy. These were the principal points in the creed 
of the federal psrty. The influence of this party 
was so great that it succeeded in the election of Mr. 
Adams as the successor to Gen. Washington ; and, 
to complete the purposes which they originally had 
in view, they then passed sedition and alien laws ; 
the former of which made it a crime to utter or pub- 
lish anything, " calculated to bring the president or 
either house of congress into contempt or disrepute," 
and thus effectually restrained the liberty of speech 
and of the press ; and by the latter, the president 
iiad authority to send all foreigners out of the coun- 
try ; not an alien could remain, if the president saw 
lit to enforce his authority, without his license, and 
that license liable to be revoked at any time during 
the pleasure of the president ; and the alien to reside 
at such place as the president thought proper to de- 
signate. 

These sins against liberal ideas, and most mani- 
festly against the plain principles of tlie Constitu- 
tion, were more than the people wouki bear; they 
had but too recently escaped from the despotism of 
the old government to sit down quietly and submit 
to such oppression and injustice under the new ; and 
they just turned out the British president and the 
British party, and elected a president whose princi- 
ples were in accordance with their own. 

On the day that Mr. Jefferson was inaugurated 
president, the sedition law expired, by limitation. 
The next congress which assembled, contained a 



22 

majority of democrats in both houses, and with the 
new president, they entered on the work of reform. 
" A system of federal courts, estuhUshed within the 
last few days of the Adams dynasty, and filled with 
federal judges, was abolished," and the judges, not 
having received their commissions, lost their offices 
by a repeal of the act under which they were created. 
The expenses of the previous administrations were 
lessened, by the abolition oi' sinecures ; the army 
was reduced ; the militia encouraged ; the rule of 
specific appointments adopted ; barriers around the 
sovereignty of the states and the liberties of the peo- 
ple, against the encroachments of federal authorities, 
were multiplied ; in short, the government was 
brought back to the principles of the Constitution. 
Still, the opposition clung with tenacity to their pol- 
icy ; they, however, rallied to no purpose till the 
war of 1812. 

At the commencement of that series of aggressions 
on the part of Great Britain, which led to that war, 
the opposition demanded of the federal governrricnt 
resistance to the encroachments of Great Britain, 
either by restrictive measures or by war ; they for- 
warded to Congress spirited memorials from almost 
all New-England, and from other parts of the coun- 
try, demanding of the federal government to " seek 
immediate redress of England for her spoliations 
upon our commerce, and in case she denied us, and 
persevered in her violations, a resistance to her 
aggressions was promptly required ;" and the most 
solemn pledges of united and vigorous support were 
given to aid the government in any measures it might 
adopt for the accomplishment of this purpose. The 
Boston memorial was signed by the very man who 
was afterwards president of the Hartford Conven- 
tion. Government listened to their demands, sought 
to settle the matter by negotiation, and ap))ointed 
one of their own number minister extraordinary to 
the court of St. James. Nrgotiation failed to efiect 
the purpose, and resistance became necessary. But 



23 

two methods of resistance were practicable — to wit, 
restrictive measures or war. For war we were not 
prepared. Restrictive measures were, therefore, re- 
sorted to. The first step in this series was the non- 
importation act. It was a '' powerful appeal to the 
forbearance of Great Britain, by excluding many of 
her manufactures from our market ;" but the ruling 
powers of Great Britain were deaf alike to the 
remonstrance of reason and the demands of honor, 
and it failed. The paper blockade was immediately 
issued, and that was soon followed by the far-famed 
orders in council. These, with the French decrees, 
excluded us from the ocean ; Sweden alone was left 
with open ports ; — and to trade with her, Great Britain 
required that we should first enter her harbors and 
pay tribute — sometimes to an amount exceeding the 
cost of the article exported. The next step by our 
government, in the progress of this restrictive sys- 
tem, was the embargo. It probably rescued an hun- 
dred millions of our property and fifty thousand of 
our seamen from the ocean. It was succeeded by 
the non intercourse ; under which Great Britain 
made a treaty through Mr. Erskine, and then refused 
to ratify it. The last measure of resistance demand- 
ed of the government, by the disciples of Hamilton, 
was war. 

And how did the federal party redeem its pledges 
to support the government in its measures ? No 
sooner did England begin to groan under the eflTects 
of this restrictive system, and to awaken to a sense 
of justice, than she received informatioh from them 
that it must soon be repealed ; that our government 
could not enforce it ; that it would, if continued, 
produce a civil war, a separation of the states, and 
a separate government in New-England. Insurgent 
resolutions were passed in Boston and in several 
other places, and it was declared, by the very men 
who had asked for restrictive measures, that the 
people were not bound to obey the embargo. Such 
was the consistency of the opposition. In 1806 they 



2i 

pleilgcd themselves to support government in ii war 
against England, if slie j)ersi.stcd in her invasions 
upon our rights. In 1807, ihey abused government 
for not going to war on account of the attack upon 
one of our vessels by the British. But in 1812, 
v.hen Croat Britain had carried on her robberies on 
tiie seas for six years ; taken near one thousand of our 
vessels, and tAvcnty millions of our property ; when 
we were excluded from any trade with all Europe ; 
when more than six thousand of our people had been 
impressed ; when our government had been insulted, 
our shores blockaded, and redress was peremptorily 
refused ; under these circumstances, the same men 
of the opposition who had demanded war, assumed 
the name of ^^ peace party,'' and denounced the war 
with Great Britain as " wanton," " unnecessary," 
and " unjust." Combinations were formed by the 
leading federalisls, to prevent people from loaning 
money to government, and constructions were put 
upon the Constitution, by which the mililia evaded 
the calls of the government. They declared the 
Constitution null and void, and, of course, the con- 
stitutional acts of Congress; and the federal papers 
called for a change in the government by revolution. 
An attempt was made to bankrupt the government 
and give a death-blow to the national credit, through 
the banks. Tlie Hoston banks refused to discount, 
hoarded their specie, and sent home suddeidy gr(>at 
quantities of the l)ills of the New York banks ; mil- 
lions of specie were drawn out from thence and 
brought to Buslon. The ISew York banks, thrown 
into confusion, called on the banks of Philadelphia ; 
Philadelphia on Baltimore, and the Baltimore hanks 
on those still further south. At length the south- 
ern banks were compelled to stop payment, and a 
wide scene of distress and general bankruptcy en- 
sued. 

At this dark period, the Hartford Convention was 
got up. It was called at a time, moreover, when 
the war had assumed a new and more alarminii as- 



25 

pect. The treaty of Paris, vvhicli had just theii 
been concluded, left Great Britain at liberty to em- 
ploy her whole force against our country, and in 
her wrath she had sworn the annihilation of our 
government. While the convention was assem- 
bling, and in session, an invading army was ready 
to break in upon our northern frontier, and open a 
winter campaign ; our atlantic shores were threat- 
ened with sword and desolation, and a part of 
New England in actual possession of the British 
troops.* On the south, a strong navy and land force 
was in preparation for an attack upon New Orleans, 
whose capture would have destroyed the commerce 
of the western country, and exposed that part of our 
territory to invasion and plunder ; our government 
on the verge of bankruptcy, and our own section of 
the country on the borders of civil war. It was at 
this gloomy crisis that a convention was called — not 
to concert measures to meet the common enemy — 
but, according to the declarations of its members, 
to alter our national Constitution. The lapse of 
time has left no doubt that this convention was 
really got up to destroy the union and the Consti- 
tution, and to bring about the sort of government 
which Hamilton had endeavored to institute. Anoth- 
er session was to have been held, but, meanwhile, 
peace came and defeated their plans. 

The glorious termination of that war was a blow 
to the federal party, from which it did not recover 
for a long time afterward. It was, perhaps, unfor- 
tunate for the country that its internal enemies, the 
federal party, were then so signally prostrated ; for, 
at the close of the administration of Mr. Munroe, 
the democracy had given up its organization, in a 
great degree lost its zeal and energy, and was much 
divided upon its presidential candidate. It was in 
consequence of this, and a sort of legerdemain, pe- 
culiar to the federal party, that it finally succeeded 
in placing John duincy Adams in the presidential 

* Olive Branch. 

4 



2C^ 

scat, aujuiiisl tlu; clear and iiiaiiifcsl \\islics oflhrcc- 
Iburtlis ol the people of the country. And altliough 
he declared that it would give him great pleasure to 
sul)niit the decision of the question again to the 
people, there were probably, alas, but few men in 
the country who had charity enough to believe the 
declarjition sincere ; for every body knew that the 
decision would have been as it was four years after- 
ward. 

No sooner was Mr. Adams installed in office, than 
the old principles of the federal party were revived. 
The Constitution had given to the Icderal govern- 
ment the authority to lay and collect taxes, to pay 
the debts, and provide for tlie conunon defence and 
general welfare of the union. But Mr. Adams 
found power, by construction, to collect money from 
one class of the people — the consumers, — lor the 
benefit of another class — the manufacturers. The 
great object of the tariff law of 1828, was not rev- 
enue, but protection. It was a measure l)y which 
a particular class and profession were privileged to 
take toll from the laboring man's })ockct. It was 
strictly in the line of Hamilton's policy, to bind the 
wealthy and powerful class of society to the support 
of the government, through their interest. And to 
such an alarming extent was also the system of in- 
ternal improvement, by the federal government, car- 
ried by Mr. Adams and his party, that when the 
bill, authorizing a subscription, on the part ot" the 
United States, for stock in the Maysville and Lex- 
ington turnj)ike com])any, passed the two houses, 
there had actually been reported by the conunittee 
on internal improvements, bills containing appro- 
priations, for such objects, to the amount of one 
hundred and six millions of dollars.* And in addi- 
tion to these projects, which had Ixm ii acted upon 
by the coimnittees, a|)pr()priat ions for others, of a 
similar character, had been asked lor, and were then 
pending before the committees, to the amount of 

* Gen. Jackson's Message in 1S30. 



«inotiier hundred unllions of dollars. The judiciary 
stretched out iis aulhority, and every year assumed 
some new and more ahuming power ; and every 
movement of the treasury department was distinctly 
marked, as apart of the same line of policy, which 
had characterized the administration of Hamilton 
from the first. 

The people saw all this, and to what it must 
necessarily lead ; and again they concerted, agreed 
and rallied, — as they had ever done before when 
their liberties were in danger of being subverted, 
and the government threatened with being changed 
to an aristocracy, — and they elected Gen. Jackson. 

The policy of his administration is so familiar to 
this assembly, that I need not endeavor to recapitu- 
late it. The firm and decided stand taken by him, 
soon after he came into office, in returning the 
Maysville road bill to the house of representatives, 
put an end, at once, to all these projects of internal 
improvement ; and the same manly independence, 
wisdom and integrity manifested by him on all oc- 
casions, and in reference to all subjects, so far re- 
stored the government to its original purity and 
simplicity, that but few reforms are now necessary 
to effect the original purpose of its framers. 

Is it then alleged, that the principles of the demo- 
cratic party at this time, are not identical with the 
principles of the democratic party in the time of Mr. 
Jefferson ? And does (he question really arise, in 
the mind of any body, which of the antagonist par- 
ties is now the democratic party ? It was a leading 
principle with the democratic party, at the time of 
the adoption of the CoiLstitution, as we have seen, 
to make the government as simple as possible ; leav- 
ing all power in the hands of the people, excepting 
only so much as was essential to the maintenance of 
good government. Precisely such is the purpose 
of the democratic party now. In the days of Mr. 
Jefferson, the democracy were opposed to all monop- 
olies and exclusive privileges ; whether by the use 



2H 

oTtlH' jxihlic nioiH V, or by ;i control of 1 lie currency 
olthe country and the value of all property, through 
(he aid of a national bank, or in whatever other way. 
Every body knows tliat sucii is the policy of the de- 
mocratic party now. In 1800, the democratic party 
was for restraininij t'he judiciary within prescribed 
bounds ; limiting the tenure ol" judicial offices and 
making the judges responsible to the people. These 
are some of the great objects for which the demo- 
cracy of to-day is contending. It was the part of 
federalism, in the days of Hamilton and John Ad- 
ams, to lend the public treasure to individuals for 
their own private use, and so corrupt a powerful and 
favored class, to the support of the government. 
This is the policy of the whig party now ; and as 
the money cannot be constitutionally loaned- out 
directly, they claim to loan it out indirectly, through 
the banks. It was admitted to be anti-democratic, 
in the days of John Adams, to pass the sedition law. 
Is it less so in the whig party now .. to advocate a 
measure, the effect of which would have been sim- 
ilar ? The sedition law put a muzzle upon the 
press, and subjected men to fine and imprisonment, 
U^ they H\)okQ disrcspecifulhj oi" the president or of 
either house of congress ; the bill proposed by Mr. 
Crittenden, in the senate, at the late session, and 
advocated hy all the wliig mend)ers of that body, 
went further, and would have put a muzzle upon the 
mouths of thousands of our citizens, and sul)jected 
them to fine and imprisonment, if tliey had offered a 
whig a democratic vote, even in the most gracious , 
manner possible. 

As tlie federal party endeavored to restrict the 
right of suflfrage in 1780, and to found government 
on property in 1820, and to prohibit the mechanics 
and husbandmen from laying their " huge paws" 
i:pon tile statute book in 18.31, so did the great part 
of the whig party, in the legislature of 18;39, ojjpose 
the |)rinciple of the population basis of the senate; 
and wlir!i that matter was under consideration in 



29 

the house of representatives, a leading whig member* 
declared, that this theory of population basis and 
free suffrage, would do very well for people who had 
no property, to talk about, but those who had any 
thing at stake in the state, must be insane to advo- 
cate it. As the federal party, in 1812, opposed the 
government and took the side of the enemy in its 
war-measures with Great Britain, so the whig 
party, in 1836, opposed the government in its contro- 
versy with France. In 1813, the federalists did all 
in their power to destroy the credit of the govern- 
ment, and then accused it of being bankrupt. Did 
the whigs do less than this in 1838, when they re- 
fused to make any provision to meet the demands 
upon the treasury, and their presses were teeming 
daily with the charge that the treasury was bank- 
rupt — the strongest they could make against the 
government ? In 1812, the leading federalists de- 
clared that Great Britain had done us " no essen- 
tial injury," and that it was unbecoming a moral 
and religious people to rejoice at the victories over 
their enemies ; in 1836, one of the same federalists, 
now the defender of the whig faith, declared that 
he would not vote a dollar, to the discretion of the 
president, to save his country, though the enemy 
were thundering at the walls of the capitol. In fact, 
the identity is perfect. Again and again have they 
changed their names, but their principles are still 
the same. Federalism then, is federalism now. 

" All the water in the ocean 

Can never turn a swan's black legs to white, , 
Alihough she lave them houily in the flood." 

It is no answer to this argument, to say that some 
men have changed. It is to be expected that some 
men's opinions and sentiments and feelings always 
will change. All will admit that a few of the old 
democratic party have gone over to federalism ; but 
they were those only who had not far to go. It is 
a most remarkable fact, that whenever a man has 

* Mr. Choate. 



.^30 

Ueen detected by tliis, or the lale administration, in 
])eculating upon the |niblic treasure, or has been 
ibund unfaithful in other respects, if not wliig before, 
he has innncchately turned whii:: '■> — see, for exam- 
ple, Svvartwout, Price, Gratiot and Mayo ; indeed, 
I do not recoUect aU exception. Some men have 
stuc!<. to tlie administration hke bees to the hive, 
and professed democracy at every breath, while 
there was patronage and favors to be gained ; but 
wlien tiie j)atronage was exliausled, or the public had 
lost confidence in their honesty or patriotism, they 
have fallen from tlie suj)port of the (lemocratic party 
as leaves do fall from the trees in autuum ; — see, for 
example, Mr. Duane, Reuben M. Whitney, Fran- 
cis Baylies, and the like. Another remarkable fact 
about this matter is, that those who have lost the 
public confidence, for the reasons which I have men- 
tioned, are taken up and made to occu])y the chief 
])laces in the party claiming all the honesty, and 
fidelity, and respectability, in the community ; — after 
Swartwout liad plundered the treasury of more than 
a million of dollars, and had been displaced by the 
administration, he was nominated, at a public meet- 
in*; of the whiffs of New York, as their candidate 
for the vice presidency, and by them was recom- 
mended to the people as a man of the stiictest 
integrity and uprightness. 

It is needless to atKMupt a discussion of the prin- 
ciples of a new party, that just now sprung up in 
sojne j)arts of our country, and assumed the iKune 
of Conservative ; for, in reality, it never had any 
well settled and definite principles, but stood, while 
it stood at all, between two prin('ij)les. The late 
election in Virginia has effectually dispersed the 
last remnant of that little tribe. Only one of its 
number is now left to write its history and recount 
the deeds of his companions. Such is the end of 
every thing that lives only by a name. 

But, though the f(Mleral party has the same pur- 
poses in view now that it vw.r had ; though it is 



31 

looking steadily forward to the same end that it did 
from the first, its members rarely have the candor to 
avow their real sentiments ; not one of ihem can 
can stand up and look democracy in the face. The 
men of the old lederal party had, at least, the merit 
of avowing their principles, frankly and openly ; 
but their sons, the v.'higs of the present da}^ are 
obnoxious to the charge of disingenuousness — to 
use no harsher term — for it is most manifest, that 
while they look one way, they row the other. As 
they claimed to possess all the decency and order in 
the community, while mobbing a citizen of Boston, 
at noon-day, for a free and decent expression of his 
opinions, in 1836 ; so now, while advocating for the 
presidency, a man pledged to a fifty million national 
hank, and a protective policy, they claim to be more 
democratic than the democratic party. The old 
federal doctrines are now so well understood, and 
are so obnoxious to the great body of the people, 
that a party, openly advocating them in our country, 
where the right of sufirage is general, stands not 
even the least chance of success. The whigs have, 
therefore, adopted the plan of opposing every meas- 
are brought forward by the democracy, without pre- 
senting and advocating any definite measures of their 
own. They are now emphatically an opposition, 
and nothing more.* They do not rely upon any jus- 
tice in their own cause, to bring them into power in 
the general government ; but in the hope that the 
administration may make a false step.. Hence, we 
know, their extreme eagerness to fasten upon the 
secretary of the treasury the blame of the recent 
defalcations. They hoped he would turn out an 
unfaithful officer ; that the administration would 
prove corrupt ; and that, in consequence, they might 
obtain the control of the government. Contrary to 

* Opposition to the national administration, said James T. Austin, Esq., at 
a whig meeting, not very long since, is the first groat principle of the whig 
party. Wc have labored, said Mr. Webster, (speaking with relerence to the 
called session of Congress, and in behalf of the whig members thereof,) not so 
much for the attainment of any positive good, as to prevent any thing being 
done by others. 



32 

tlicir hopes, tlic secretary, submitting to the most 
tlioroucli examination, witlihohling nothing from 
scrutiny, passed the investigation witliout even the 
sHghtest dishonor ; and the committee, who liad 
pledged themselves, in advance to prove him guilty ol" 
corruption, after the most extraordinary etibrts to re- 
deem their promise, were compelled to retract the 
charjre. But what if it had Ix^en otherwise ? What 
if the secretary of the treasury, or even the presi- 
dent himself, had been proved guilty of corruption ? 
Ought the government, therefore, pass into the 
hands of the whigs ? Is the fact, that public ofh- 
cers are not always faithful, any argument that the 
cause of democracy should be abandoned ? Cer- 
tainly not. Democracy, as we have seen, is a great 
idea, a living ])rinciple ; public officers are nothing — 
the president himself is nothing, except he identities 
himself with this idea, and is the representative of 
this principle. Its agents may prove unfaithful and 
desert it, but the principle is still the same. It is 
this fact which is at the bottom of Mr. Van Buren's 
success, that every act of his public life has been 
tested by the standard of democracy. 

Again: the opposition discuss nothing, argue 
nothing ; they only comj)lnin. Thus, with the con- 
stitutional treasvu'y bill, they do not reason, have not 
reasoned, upon the merits, the justice or practical 
effect of the measure. And what is rpiite as remark- 
able, few whig papers in the country have ever pub- 
lished the bill. Why they have not done so, every 
man will judge for himself; but, I submit, ihat 
the rational inference is, they fear their readers 
should see the bill, examine its provisions, test it by 
the Constitution, and learn thai it is not a very fear- 
iul monster after ail. If tlie indepcMident treasury 
plan really were as bad as the opposition represent it 
to be, I ask every man who hears me, if he does not 
believe they would j)ubiisli it at once — universally. 
No man can doubt that they would. They look 
around upon "the flood of pro.«jperity flowing in 



upon tiic courury," under the practical operation of 
this independent treasury system, and the best possi- 
ble cause of complaint they can conjure up against 
it, is, that Swartwout and a few others, helped them- 
selves from the chest. But did any of them com- 
plain that our banking system vras bad, and ought 
lo be given up, when the chairman of tlie whig com- 
mittee of public safety, at Boston, decamped with 
the funds of his bank ? Certainly not, to my recol- 
lection. 

Most numerous are the evidences that might be 
adduced of the lack of candor and integrity of the 
leaders of the opposition ; but I have time left to 
speak only of a few. 

On the boundary question, they assailed the poli- 
cy of the administration from diflerent quarters and 
for different reasons ; some, that the president had 
gone too far in support of the conduct of Maine ; 
others, that he had not gone far enough ; and all al- 
ledged that iLs policy in that matter was good cause 
for a change in the government. In making these 
attacks upon the administration, Mr. Webster was 
among the foremost. He charged the government 
with remissness ; that it ought to have settled the 
matter before now ; and that, if he had the manage- 
ment of the controversy, he would settle it at once ; 
he would tell the British government that it imist be 
settled ; and if it were not settled before the fourth 
of July, he would take possession of the territory, 
and say to her, '" drive us from it if you can !" But, 
when it was apparent that no political- capital could 
be made by that policy, and that the people saw 
that there was a want of sober good sense in the 
declaration, a kind friend in New York — no doubt ^ 
without the least pre-concert or arrangement — 
addressed Mr. Webster a letter of inquiry, as to 
his real opinions touching the border question ; at 
the same time remarking, he believed that the re- 
porters had done great injustice in relating his 
speech. Now, it will be remembered, that the reports 
5 



34 

of this speech were remarkably similar ; but Mr. 
Webster replied to the inquiry of his friend, thus : 
You ar«' right, my dear sir ; the reporters have done 
me great injustice. 1 did not mean that we should 
take possession of the territory ; I only meant to 
siiy, the land belonged to us, and that the British 
government ought to give it up ; and that it ought 
to have given it up before now. I spoke of the 
fourth ol' July, but I did not mean that we ought to 
take possession of the territory next Iburth of July ; 
oh, no, you are right, sir ; that would have been 
absurd, indeed. There is no time to negotiate be- 
tween now and tin; Iburth of July ; and I am cer- 
tainly for negotiation, and voted to send a special 
minister. AA'hat I intended, when I spoke of the 
fourth of July, was, that if we were ever obliged to 
<;o to war with England, some fourth of Julv would 
be a propitious time to make the declaration. 

If any thing, in the conduct of a man lilling a very 
large space in the public mind, can appear more 
absurd than this declaration and explanation of JMr. 
Wel)ster, when put together, 1 thiiik it must be the 
si)ectacle of an American going to London to decline 
being a candidate for the presidency of his own 
country. 

It is a matter too notorious to need to be proved, 
that the leading whigs and the whig newspapers op- 
posed the resumption of specie jiayments. One or 
more of the whig papers at iJoston, declared that it 
would be ruinous, both to the banks themselves and 
to tluMr debtors, to resume, while this administration 
lasted ; and more th;m one of the orators of the whig 
])artv averred, in their j)ublic meetings, that the banks 
"ought not, could not, and would not, resume, till a 
national bank was instituted." Yet, a month or 
two ago, in the face of all these statements, they 
declared that tiiey never had opposed resumption ; 
but that, on the contrary, they had been foremost in 
advocating an early resumption. The reason for 
this chaniie is obvious. AVith the n^turn of specie 



35 

payments, prosperity returned ; trade revived ; com- 
merce again reared her head ; the various branches 
of industry were liberally encouraged and rewarded; 
and the policy of the administration, in bringing 
about this happy result, was commending itself to 
the people. The leaders of the opposition, therefore, 
deemed it necessary, on their part, to change ground, 
and declare that it was the administration, and not 
they, who had been hostile to resumption, — and ac- 
cordingly they did so. 

Nor can I perceive that the conduct of his excel- 
lency, the chief magistrate of our commonwealth, is 
a whit more consistent and strain;ht-forward than 
that of the orators and journals who sustain him. I 
have, certainly, no wish to speak of his excellency 
otherwise than respectfully ; but I will speak my 
honest opinions and feelings, even though they offend 
delicacy. It is often said, when speaking of the lack 
of candor in a public officer, "we speak of him only 
in a political sense — as a politician, merely." But 
I know of no such sense, and subscribe to no such 
doctrine. I hold that politics and morals are insep- 
arable, and that, neither in the one science any more 
than in the other, can there be two theories of hon- 
esty — one for show and the other for use. When I 
see a man, while professing a great regard for the 
public welfare, pursuing a line of conduct most man- 
ifestly and obviously calculated to abridge the pub- 
lic safety and happiness, I have no more charity for 
him than for another who professes a sincere regard 
for the principles of religion, and, at the same time, 
destroys the happiness of his neighbor. 

I am now to speak of an institution — one of the 
noblest and dearest to the heart of every American 
citizen, that has ever been established among us ; 
an institution too intimately connected with the glo- 
ry of our country and the freedom and happiness of 
the people, to be passed unnoticed on this joyful an- 
niversary the MILITIA. 

In the legislation of the federal government, in 



36 

reference to llic iiiililia, there has heeii a continuity 
of the same idea ; there has been no radical chanirc 
of plan, but the |)in-j)ose has been to reform the same 
system ; thou/ih it must he ackno\N led^^cd, liuit but 
little of the much that the well-bein<i- of the in- 
stitution demanded has been done. '^Phe law of 
1792 directed tlie enrollment of " all able-bodied 
white male citizens of the respective states," be- 
tween the ages of eighteen and forty-five years. 
It exempted only those employed in the service of 
the federal government. Its purpose was to estab- 
lish a uniform militia system tiu-oughout the United 
States ; and it was well enough calculated to elfect 
that purpose. 

Another act was passed by Congress in 1795. 
It provided merely for the calling forth of the mili- 
tia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insur- 
rections, repel invasions, and the like. 

The act of 1S08, made provision for arming and 
equiping the whole body of the militia ; appropriat- 
ing, for that ]>urj)ose, the annual sum of two hundred 
thousand dollars. And the act of 1836 was intended 
as a part of the same plan, — making further provis- 
ion for the payment of volunteer and militia corps. 

But the legislation of our commonwealth, on this 
subject, during the last ten years, has been capri- 
cious and without uniformity. Systems have been 
adopted, and before they were made perfect, or had 
been fairly tried, have been given up as hopeless, 
and some new project, but half reasoned out, even 
in the mind of the projector, has been substituted, 
only to be abandoned in the same way in its turn. 

Up to about 18.30, this noble institution had flour- 
ished ; and every man among us, qualified to be an 
officer, esteemed a connnission in it as a badge of 
honor. Near that period it began to decline ; on 
one or two occasions the pulpit essayed against it ; 
and the then chief magistrate oi' the conunonwealth, 
and probably the author of the bill brought forward 
at the last session — bc^inu avowedlv a friond to the 



3? 

institution — was looked to, by its active members, to 
recommend a remedy for the defects in the organi- 
zation, and thus restore it to pubhc favor. 

The attention of the legislature was invited to 
the subject, and an act passed which greatly in- 
creased the list of exempts, conditional and abso- 
lute, and changed the character of the system, in 
some other respects, certainly not for the better ; 
but it contained what, under the circumstances, was 
a redeeming quality. It exempted all who kept 
themselves armed, uniformed and equipped, and 
performed active duty, from the payment of poll 
taxes ; — the members of the standing companies, 
not less than the light corps. This provision re- 
mained operative till the revision of the statutes in 
1835. But the system had been so much impaired 
by injudicious legislation, and the burdens of sup- 
porting the institution bore so unequally upon the 
people, that it had become odious ; and when the 
statutes were revised, a new experiment was tried. 
It was determined, thenceforward, to place all reli- 
ance upon the volunteer corps. The mass of the 
militia was given up, and a provision was inserted 
in the law, giving the members of volunteer compa- 
nies five dollars a year each, on the same conditions 
they had been exempted from poll taxes. Another 
act was passed by the legislature, in 1837, which 
his excellency believed, as he said, was "well cal- 
culated to improve the condition of the military 
establishment of the state;" but which, time and 
experience have shown, was exceedingly "well cal- 
culated" to make a bad matter w-orse ; as every 
officer in the line declared it would, on hearing of 
its passage. 

In 1838, the legislature passed a resolve, author- 
izing the governor to appoint commissioners to 
"report such a revision of the laws, for the organi- 
zation and discipline of the militia, as they might 
deem expedient." These commissioners — all good 
whigs — made the subject a summer's work, at the 



38 

expense of the state ; and, in October, made their re- 
port to the governor. On the 23d of January, 1839, 
his excellency recommended it to the special atten- 
tion of the two houses ; " belicvin<r," as he said, 
" that it embodied the principles on which the militia 
of the commonwealth might be safely organized, and 
thus restored to the efficiency and public favor of its 
best days." 

And what was that report ? It may be said, per- 
haps, that it is useless to discuss the provisions ol'a 
bill that has been set aside by the legislature; but it 
certainly is important, that every friend of the mili- 
tia should know what has been the course of the 
executive and the dominant party of the state, in 
reference to it ; and it is by no means certain that 
the same bill will not be pressed upon the attention 
of the next legislature. 

The bill i)rovided for the appointment of one 
judge advocate for each brigade — to hold his of- 
fice DURING THE PLEASURE OF THE GOVERNOR 
AND COUNCIL wllO should haVC EXCLUSIVE JURIS- 
DICTION of all complaints made by clerks of com- 
panies, for the recovery of fines. These judge 
advocates were to have received four dollars a day 
each, from the treasury of the commonwealth, for 
every day on which they held courts, and one dol- 
lar for every ten miles' travel, — their nccounis to 
be approved by the governor. j\o appeal from 
the judgment of the judge advocates was to have 
been allowed the defendants, " unless the forfeiture 
adjudged exceed ten dollars, exclusive of costs ;" 
and for non-payment of the penalty awarded by the 
judge advocate, the defendant would have sulfered 
six days' imprisonment in the common jail. For 
neglects, there was a fixed fine, and in addition 
thereto, a j)roperty tax ; and in some cases a very 
great discretion, as to the penalty, would have rested 
with the judge advocate. These are some of the 
prominent points in the bill. They arc extraordi- 
nary and novel to our government, and it is due to 



39 

the institution, that they be examined. 1 have to 
regret, especially, that the limits of the occasion will 
permit me to offer only a few general remarks upon 
them. 

It may be objected, first, that these judge advo- 
cates were entirely unnecessary ; that there are 
now justices of the peace in every part of the com- 
monwealth, better qualified for acting upon these 
cases, — because generally men of experience in ju- 
dicial matters, — than the young men who would 
probably have obtained those appointments. There 
was, therefore, an objection that it would have mul- 
tiplied state officers, increased " executive patron- 
age" and the state expenses, without promoting 
justice or the convenience of the people. But this 
objection is light, compared with those which may 
be urged, to the tenure by which these judge advo- 
cates were to have held their commissions, and the 
powers with which they were to have been clothed. 

One of the prominent grievances set forth in the 
declaration of our independence, was, that the king 
had made judges dependent on his will alone, for the 
tenure of their offices, and payment of their salaries ; 
and the framers of our constitution greatly feared 
that the judiciary would be under executive influ- 
ence. Hence, the judges were made independent of 
the executive. Unfortunately, in avoiding one error, 
they fell into (he opposite, in making the judges 
irresponsible to the people through the hfe tenure of 
their offices — impeachment being merely a nominal 
affair — but, however that may have been, the idea 
was to separate the departments, and make the judi- 
ciary independent of the executive ; and it was so 
made by the thirtieth article in the bill of rights — 
to the end that our government might be one of laws, 
and not of men. This bill, however — recommended 
by Governor Everett — would have passed the barrier 
which the Constitution has set up, and blended ex- 
ecutive and judiciary. It would have made the 
commander-in-chief of the militia — the executive of 



1.0 

the laws — the judge and avenger of all those charged 
>vilh iiaving neglected to comply with his commands. 
Holding their commissions at the \villorthe execu- 
tive, ohtaining their salaries only hy his approhation, 
and responsihh; alon(! to him, the judge advocates 
would liave heen at liherty to pass no judgment other 
than his own. The hill would have created a class of 
officers entirely inconsistent witii our Constitution, 
and expressly repudiated by tlie article to which I 
have referred. It would have joined the sword with 
tl;e ermine, concentrated the powers of trial, judg- 
ment and execution, in the same hands. Trace the 
history of legislation in our connnonwealth, ever 
since the Constitution was adopted, and it presents 
no instance of the creation of oilices to he filled by 
men clothed with similar powers, holding their com- 
missions by such a tenure. Justices of the peace, 
aj)pointed for seven years, are not removable except 
by address of both houses of the legislature ; and no 
militia officer, says the law, shall be discharged by 
the commander-in-chief, unless upon his own re- 
quest except in certain specified cases, and for good 
cause. But here were to have been judges — men 
clothed with supreme judicial authority — removable 
without reason alleged; mere stafl' officers of the 
commander-in-chief, who, neither under the laws of 
the United States, or of any state in the union, were 
ever allowed to sit as mcml)ers of a court-martial. 
Under such a military despotism, in times of high 
party excitement, who could have hoped or expected 
an impartial achninistration of tiie laws ? And yet, 
this is the system which his excellency assured the 
legislature, " embodied the pnncij)les upon which 
the militia of the commonweallii might be sal'ely or- 
ganized, and thus restored to the cUicicncy and 
public favor of its best days." 

So much, hastily, in regard to the tenure I)y which 
these judges were to have held their oilices. A word 
or two as to the power and discretion proposed to 
be conferred upon them. 



41 

Suppose that bill a law under the present state 
administration, and suppose a poor invalid brought 
before one of the judge advocates, charged with 
neglect of duty, with but little notice of his trial. 
From inadvertance, ignorance, inability or some one 
of many causes, he did not procure a certificate of 
his infirmity ; he is known to the judge advocate as 
a democrat, and, to his failure to do military duty, is 
added the supposed crime of political heresy ; he 
asks a continuance, to enable him to substantiate 
the facts set up in his defence ; the law says, a con- 
tinuance shall be granted — " if justice requires it ;" 
but that same law leaves it to the judge advocate to 
determine whether or no justice do require it, and he 
decides that it does not ; for he has orders from the 
commander-in-chief to execute the laws rigorously, 
and get all the fines possible, since the state treasury 
is bankrupt. In vain does the defendant plead for 
an impartial hearing. No appeal is allowed him, 
for the fine is less than ten dollars ; the judge advo- 
cate is inexorable, and the poor man must submit, 
and go to jail ! while, perhaps, his family are depend- 
ing upon the rewards of his daily labor for their 
daily subsistence. Here is another feature of that 
system, which was recommended by the Governor, 
as sure to restore the militia to the favor of its best 
days. Besides, the bill set up a distinction between 
the rich and the poor, in the right of appeal. The 
principle of property fine, for neglect to do military 
duty, is undoubtedly a correct one, if so incorpora- 
ted in the law as to compel the rich man to enter the 
ranks and serve the commonwealth with his poor 
neighbor ; but certainly not as a means of enabling 
him to escape military duty. Such, however, would 
have been the effect of the principle as embodied in 
this bill. 

Suppose two men, one rich and the other poor, 
adjudged by the judge advocate guilty of neglect 
to attend an inspection, under precisely the same 
circumstances. Judgment is rendered against the 



12 

roriiK'i' lor twenty dullai;s, aiul tlie laltcr lor lour dol- 
lars. So far, tlic law is right ; hut why should the 
rigiit of a|)j)eal he allowed the one and denied the 
other ? is it not niost manifest, that the rich man 
would take the benefit of an appeal, and, in two cases 
out of three, «;et the judgment reversed on the ap- 
peal ? The chief argument of the attorney gener- 
al, in his report against appeals on matters of fact^ 
in criminal cases, is the chances of esca[)e it nflords 
the guilty, at the second trial. And would the 
chances be less in military cases? Certainly not. 
Thus, while this hill ])rofessed to inipose an addi- 
tional burden u})on the man of j)roperty, it really 
would have had a tendency to exempt him from the 
performance of all military duty. 

As a friend to this institution, never was I more 
rejoiced than when I learned that the democratic 
members of the legislature had succeeded in defeat- 
ing that bill. I was rejoiced that there were a few 
whigs left, who were not so lost to all sense of right 
and justice, as to vote for it on its final passage. 
Yet, hardly was that bill defeated, when an injus- 
tice was inllicted uj)on the institution, scarcely less 
than would have been by the passage of the bill it- 
self I refer to the repeal of the law nuiking the 
allowance of five dollars each to the members of vol- 
nnteer corps. Every reason which would have 
apj)lied lor granting the allowanc(\ when it wa8 
originallv granted, would have a[»})lied, with even 
greater force, for continuing it. No excuse has been 
offered, or can be offered, as I conceive, for with- 
drawing this allowance, except that our state treas- 
ury is bankrui)t ; and it has been made bankrupt 
through the mismanagement of the state adminis- 
tration. 

Such is, briefly, the history of the legislation of 
our commonwealth, during the last eight or ten 
years, in reference to this (juce honored, now op- 
pressed instil ut ion. There is now, in fact, no militia 
organization in the stale. The organization of the 



43 

standing companies being merely nominal ; and 
the light corps, artillery and cavalry being only a 
voluntary organization, may be surrendered up at 
any time. For the organization of these latter 
corps, and the protection they afford to the lives, 
liberty and property of our citizens, we are entirely 
indebted to the patriotic efforts of the young men 
who compose them. 

This is not the place or the occasion to devise a 
system for the organization of the militia. But if 
men to whom it belongs to do so would set about 
it, there would be no difficulty in its accomplish- 
ment. There should be no exempts on account of 
profession or calling ; all should be placed upon the 
same footing, and required to perform equal ser- 
vice ; there should be a property fine in addition to 
the ordinary penalty ; there should be no imprison- 
ment for the non-payment of fines, but the amount 
should stand good against the delinquent, as any 
other tax. There is no good reason why a man 
should be imprisoned for the non-payment of a mili- 
tia fine any more than for the non-payment of a 
highway or other tax ; and there is no more justice 
in imprisoning a man for the non-payment of either 
of these, than for the non-payment of a debt due an 
individual. Imprisonment always implies that the 
prisoner has committed a crime. Now the statute 
no where declares the non-performance of military 
duty a crime. It is a neglect to render a service 
which a man owes the state, and is so expressed in 
the statute ; the non-payment of a note is a neglect 
to render service which one man owes another ; 
and in both cases excuses are taken. The law has 
made a very important distinction between the non- 
performance of military duty, and oficnces against 
the commonwealth. In the former case, the com- 
monwealth takes the property of the defendant by 
distress warrant, precisely as in the case of any 
other debt ; in the latter case the law has made no 
such provision. Imprisonment is the alternative 
for punishment. 



41 

I complain of Governor Everett, then, that, as 
commander-in-cliief of the militia of the common- 
wealth, haviii:; attended hri«^ade and other parades, 
and had oj)portunity to observe and know what was 
recpiired to raise the militia to its former standard, 
he lias recommended no alteration in the law snited 
to the pnblic wants ; but, on the contrary, has re- 
commended a system which, had it been adopted, 
would necessarily have destroyed the eliiciency of 
the institution and rendered it more odious tlian 
ever ; that while his lips were yet redolent with 
professions of abhorrence for imprisonment for del)t, 
he has recommended imprisonment for debt in mili- 
tia cases ; and that, finally, while professin*; the 
most sincere regard tor the well-being of the militia, 
he has approved a bill, passed by a very small 
majority of the two houses, taking away the only 
countenance and encouragement the law afforded 
the active and efficient portion of the institution. 

Besides, if we turn to that part of his excellen- 
cy's last message which relates to the absorbing 
license question, though we read half a newspaper 
column which he has devoted to the question, we 
sliall be at as much loss, I think, to determine what 
is ids honest opinion of the measure, as if he had 
written nothing. It is worthy of note, how nicely he 
holds in his hand the balance, and dropping a sen- 
tence in this scale for the law, and a sentence in 
that against it, and so on alternately, weighs out 
his opinion to either party to the controversy. 

So of the state expenses. His excellency knew 
they had nearly doubled under his administration ; 
that the treasury was ruinously bankrupt, and that 
the only eflectual way to relieve it was by a state 
tax, and the most rigid economy in future. Yet, 
instead of recommending the abolition of useless 
otlircs, or anv other jjrnctiral measure of retrench- 
Micnl, h(^ merely intimated the expediency of a 
change in the existing system of taxation ; and 
without devising and reiisoning out, or even sug- 
gesting, any better system, left the famishing treaa- 



45 

ury to find relief in money borrowed upon the public 
credit, to be paid only when his administration shall 
be know n among the things that were. The useless 
officers were all spared ; nay, the corps was in- 
creased ; and but for the unwearied efforts of the 
democratic members of the legislature, would have 
been greatly increased — certainly with no other vis- 
ible intent, than to add to the number of active par- 
tizans in the whig cause. At the same time, a great 
portion of the expenses of the state government has 
been shifted to the counties. Not a dollar is to 
be saved to the people, in the aggregate, by the 
change ; and no valid reason can be oflered for 
making it, other than that it will enable the whigs 
to declare, with a show of plausibihty, pending the 
next election, that the state expenses have been 
reduced ! 

Such has been the policy of the administration of 
Governor Everett. Did the occasion permit, I should 
ask your attention to other of its leading character- 
istic measures ; — to the recent movement of the at- 
torney general toward the abolition of trial by jury, 
and especially to the earnest endeavors of the lead- 
ing whig members of the legislature to sell every 
man into slavery, who may be so unfortunate as to 
be compelled to ask pecuniary aid from his town. 
Against them all the most weighty objections must 
exist in the mind of every patriot and philanthro- 
pist. The idea upon which they proceed, is the 
idea of Hamilton and the old federal party, that 
there are naturally and necessarily two classes in 
society — one to govern and the other to be govern- 
ed — and that the doctrine of the social and political 
equality of the people is inconsistent with the order 
of humanity. Against this idea, democracy objects 
and humanity itself protests. It cannot, therefore, 
be approved by the people. 

Now suppose we contemplate the other side of 
the picture. How is it with the complaints the op- 
position have made, during the last three years, 



46 

and are still niakiiiir a^jalnst the domocrary of the 
country and (lie adniinistialion of its clioico ? Are 
thov not unreasonahlo, unjust, and often insincere ? 
Will they also stand tiio test of an cxannnatioii l)V 
the standard of truth and justice? 

At the time of their rehellion on account of post- 
age, the whios did not (.'oniplain of the law which 
recjuired specie lor duvs to the j^overnniejit, hut of 
those who administered the law ; that they did not 
violate its obvious, manifest, positive reipiirements, 
hy taking a currency which they were expressly for- 
bidden to take. They asked government ofHcers, 
not only to subject tliemselves to impeaclunent, on 
their account, but to hazard their own private es- 
tates and the property of their bondsmen; for who 
doubts tliat \\\v men who demaji(]<'d of the officers of 
the government to take an irredeemable currency, 
on pain of having the post oflices pulled down about 
their ears, would then have demanded their imj)each- 
ment for having taken it? And the law would liave 
held them and their bondsmen to make good the de- 
preciation. 

They complained that specie could not be obtain- 
ed in sufficient amount to pay government dues — 
that the thing was impossil)le ; and they called upon 
Congress to create another currency for the i)urposc 
— to charter a national bank, and make its bills a 
tender for government dues. AVhen Congress as- 
sembled at the called session, the banks had not re- 
sumed ; the demands of the merchants had been so 
great and the comj)laints from the debtor class so 
numerous and so often repeated, that every demo- 
crat in Congress was disposed to yield to their en 
treaties a?id to afford all the relief consistent with 
the Constitution. They, therelbre, extended the 
time of payment of the merchants' bonds, and grant- 
ed tlu; same relief to the banks, to enable them also 
to relieve their debtors, and ultimately to pay the 
government, without causing distress. 

In consequence of having granted this relief to its 



47 

debtors, it became necessary that the government 
should borrow money to meet its own obligations, 
and to maintain the national credit. There were 
two ways open to borrow money, constitutionally :— 
iirst, on government notes with interest, which 
should be transferable, and might be used as the 
currency demanded to pay debts to the government, 
and second, on other notes or securities, not trans- 
ferable, which could not be used in payment of 
debts to the government. Those who come after 
us, curious to know the history of parties, may in- 
quire which of these two methods the whig members 
of Congress, who had been among the foremost in 
demanding anew currency, now advocated and voted 
for ; and the records of Congress will give the sur- 
prising answer, that, to a man, they opposed creat- 
ing the currency they had demanded. 

While the opposition were assembled by thou- 
sands in the old cradle of liberty, threatening revo- 
lution — ^resolving to take the government into their 
own hands, "-peaceably if we can, forcibly if we 
must" — denouncing even our form of government 
as " the icoi^st upon the face of the earth" — did the 
mower leave his scythe and the reaper his sickle, 
or the mechanic the implements of his toil, and join 
in the rebellion? Did the bold and sinewy yeoman- 
ry, the industrious mechanics, the laboring men, the 
creators of wealth — men who deserve to be privi- 
leged, if privileges are ever conferred on any men — 
did they complain against the government which our 
fathers set up in the declaration, and sacrificed 
property and life permanently to establish? No ! 
There was not a voice of complaint to be heard 
from the fields of the husbandmen. The farmers 
relied not upon the government or upon the banks 
for favors, but upon the good providence of God. 
While the panic spread dismay among the debtor 
class, they stood firm as the hills ; " they planted 
their crops, and hailed the storm and the calm as 
equally commissioned to bless them ; and they were 



48 

answered in the sunsliine and in the shower ; their 
flocks sported in gladness through their smihng 
fields ; their harvests were ripened, their granaries 
filled." They asked for no privileges, would de- 
prive none of their property or their rights ; they 
asked oidy to he secure in the enjoyment of their 
own ; they walked hehind their ploughs ; " hut the 
concpieror, in his triumphal procession, never walked 
in a path more glorious." The mechanic toiled on, 
relying upon the slow but sure rewards of his in- 
dustry, and as confidently upon the justice of that 
administration that had been placed in power by the 
voice of the people. It was in these men, that in this 
trying hour, the government put its reliance ; and 
the government was triumphantly sustained. What 
had monopolists and speculators — trafiickers in the 
articles these laborers liad created — done, that they 
should be privileged ? Nothing — manifestly noth- 
ing ! Yet, as Hamilton, in 1787, issued a treasury 
order directing the receipt of paper money, at the 
treasury, in violation of law, under his favorite the- 
ory of corrupting men, so now, they demanded of 
the secretary of the treasury to do the same thing 
for their especial benefit. 

They complain that the government does not do 
this, and that it does not do that. Is there a dearth 
in the money market? It is the fault of the govern- 
ment, and its duty to make money plenty. Is there 
a redundancy in the currency, and, consequently 
an over-importation, — a factitious price put upon 
stocks, and a monopoly of the necessaries of life, 
in a few hands? That, too, is the fault of the govern- 
ment, and the government must create a great bank, 
to regulate nnd restrain the issues of all the lesser 
ones. Have in(hviduals, in their haste to be rich, 
engaged rashly in speculations, assumed obligations 
beyond their a))ility to perform, and become over- 
whelmed with embarrassment ? It is all owing to 
the government — the removal of tiie deposites, the 
specie circular or the sub-treasury. Is trade at a 



49 

stand ? It is the fault of the government ; and, 
of course, its duty to set trade in motion ; — how 
this is to be done, they do not tell. Is the season 
adverse, are crops short, and provisions dear ? It is 
" the foolish policy of this wicked administration, 
that has caused it all." The government should 
have employed Mr. Espy to send down his showers, 
and supply what God and the elements refused. It 
is the government that must provide a remedy for 
all evils, whether of public or private character. 

Now every man of common sense, who will reflect 
even only for a moment what our government is, will 
be struck with the absurdity of this whole doctrine of 
reliance upon government. In reality, every man in 
the community is a part of the government ; all are 
equally entitled to protection and benefits ; and if 
all were to rely upon government for aid what would 
be gained in the aggregate ? When, however, the 
opposition complain against the government, they 
have reference only to the president ; who, as every 
body knows, is but the executive power — a mere 
agent of the people chosen to faithfully execute the 
laws, and to preserve, protect and defend the Con- 
titution of the union ; which Constitution, as we 
have seen, is based upon the broad principle of 
equality of rights. But the complaint is not, in fact, 
that the laws are not faithfully executed ; it is that 
the government will not pursue a line of policy 
which would give one class of men a privilege 
above the rest ; in a word, that it will not do that 
which the Constitution forbids. The president is 
an effectual guard against the introduction of that 
policy. Manifestly unjust, as is the principle it 
involves, it is what the opposition expect of eve- 
ry public officer. Some men elected to office, by 
them, occasionally avow it as their rule of con- 
duct ; others uniformly practice it, without ever 
making the avowal. But a year or two ago, he 
who now addresses you heard one of our senators 
in Congress declare in his place, on the floor of 
7 



50 

the senate, that he voted against the tariff law of 
1828, merely because, while it imposed a heavy duty 
on woolen manufactures, it imposed also a duty on 
tiieraw material, whicli neutralizcMl its effect ; — thus 
admitting that the princi})lc upon which he legislated 
was to henefit a particular class — the woolen manu- 
facturers — and not to henefit tiie wool-growers also ; 
and the other, it appears, has been retained anew, for 
a valuable fee, by the aristocracy of the country, as 
their special advocate in his ollicial character. 

Fellow citizens and friends : as a portion of the 
democracy of Massachusetts, an important duty is 
before you. You see that the whig party of to-day 
is identical with the federalism of 1812 ; you see it 
in full possession of every department of our state 
government; you know that it controls all our prin- 
cipal institutions of learning ; that three fourths of 
tlio press, and most of the tremendous influence of 
the banks are at its command ; you see the judiciary 
extending its authority, surmounting every barrier 
which the Constitution has placed around the rights 
and liberties of the people, and setting up its au- 
thority above the Constitution itself. You have seen 
a long session of the present legislature brought to 
a close without leaving any record upon the statute- 
book to claim the thanks of the people, or even the 
most trifling moiiument in the shape of legislative 
amendment or improved institutions ; you see the 
executive, while condemning with his lips the theory 
of the spoils system, carrying out that system in 
practice to the fullest extent ; you see our state 
treasury bankrupt, with no prospect of relief other 
than bv a direct tax upon the j)('ople, and some of 
our dearest institutions falling into neglect and de- 
cay ; — you know that the policy of the whigs is bad — 
that a National bank is a public grievance, the use 
of the public money, whether by banks or individu- 
als, a violation of the Constitution ; that a protecting 
policv robs one portion of the people without even 
benefiting the other to the full amount taken ; you 



51 

know, also, that a majority of the people of our state 
are democratic ; for, to doubt their democracy is 
t^o doubt their intelhgence— since intelhgence and 
democracy always go hand in hand ;— all this you 
perceive and know, and you must, therefore, believe 
that, if you can get a fair and full expression of the 
opinions and wishes of the whole people of the com- 
monwealth, it will be in favor of the democratic 
candidates. 

It therefore behooves every member of the demo- 
cratic party to aid, to the utmost of his ability, in 
the dissemination of correct political information 
throughout the state ; to circulate democratic news- 
papers, encourage political discussions, interest and 
engage all those in the good work who now stand 
aloof from the contest and feel indifferent as to its 
issue, and to organize and act in concert and with 
efficiency on the day of trial ;— above all, to inspire 
a spirit of independence in those who refrain from 
voting, through fear of federal proscriptiveness. Let 
this be done, and neither by panics, nor surprises, 
nor deceits, nor stratagems, will the combined oppo- 
sition be able to postpone to a period beyond the 
next election, the glorious consummation of our 
hopes, when Massachusetts shall be emancipated 
from federalism and take her stand beside the de- 
mocratic states of the union. 

Regarding human progress as certain, and con- 
sidering what advances have been made in the 
science of government, within a few years, I confi- 
dently believe, that, the day is not far distant, when 
the whig party shall be but a memory, and when 
the most anxious endeavor of every aspirino- young 
politician, will be to prove that he is not descended 
trom those who co-operated with it, as it is now the 
endeavor of many to prove that their fathers had no 
share in the Hartford convention ;— when liberal 
and correct principles shall pervade every part of 
our country, and the genius of democracy shall an- 
imate every soul in the land. Then will the stand- 



52 

ard of public morality in our commonwealth be 
raised to that of equal justice, and "all will 
unite with all, in requiring justice for all, and no 
more than justice for themselves, and the sovereign- 
ty of justice will bo established, and the voice of 
the people become, without a paradox, the voice of 

G? > 
CD. 



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